SURPRISE, Ariz. — Always in search of even the slimmest of competitive advantages over the rest of Major League Baseball, the Rangers may have been gifted one in the last month.

It comes, from of all people, the owners of other MLB clubs.

Owners last month quietly voted to allow individual clubs to police their pension plans for non-uniformed personnel. In other words, they gave themselves the right to reduce or slash pensions for those making ordinary wages and working long hours. People like scouts, minor league instructors and administrators.

For most baseball lifers, the Non-Uniformed Pension, is the sole long-term reward. After sacrificing family and relationships to be part of the game, the one thing longtime scouting and player development employees have to fall back on is the NUP.

Given that the majority of owners voted for reducing or eliminating benefits, it stands to reason that a number of teams will. It also stands to reason that those clubs that hold on to the program will receive a degree of advantage when it comes to hiring and retaining personnel.

That second thought is not lost on Rangers general manager Jon Daniels.

Daniels spent the first six years of his employment with the Rangers working for a club that didn’t participate in the NUP. He saw first as a lower-level employee and then as an executive how difficult it was to build stability or to hire smart minds without that one perk.

“In the past, it was definitely held up as a negative,” Daniels said Wednesday. “It wasn’t the only thing that people considered when they thought about coming here or leaving here, but if another team was offering that plan, it was something that worked against us.”

Under another system, MLB allowed owners to either participate in the plan or contribute to an “equivalent.” The Rangers, under Tom Hicks were an “equivalent,” team, though it is unclear if the plan was an equivalent in name only.

But employees who worked for the Rangers did not get service time in the NUP program, and a huge aspect of the NUP is multiplying the number of years of service (for a participating plan) by the top annual salary. Employees joining the Rangers saw their service time go stagnant. Those who left ended up receiving no credit for their time with Texas.

When new ownership took over in 2010, one of the first acts of the group headed by Ray Davis and Bob Simpson was to re-enroll in the NUP. The Rangers have been active participants ever since. There are still four teams that don’t participate: the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays. Try to find a World Series berth in that group in the last 20 years. The Rangers have two.

It’s also worth noting that with the exception of Nolan Ryan’s departure, the Rangers have had one of the most stable organizations in baseball in that time. The Rangers hire young and promote from within.

“We have wanted to build a long-term championship-caliber club on the field,” Daniels said. “And a first-class organization off of it. From day one that this ownership group came in, they have been great about taking care of people. It’s a real commitment for ownership to do it. It’s real money. But guys who have given to the game and made sacrifices, the [plan] is very important for them. And ownership realizes that.”

If they didn’t, Daniels could have taken a picture of his first spring training staff meeting for coaches, executives and some pro scouts. There were about 40 people in the room. Sixteen of them had additional responsibilities or new titles. Except for new bench coach Tim Bogar, who came from the Los Angeles Angels organization, the other 15 were already Rangers employees.

That included Jamie Reed moving from head athletic trainer into a more broad-minded medical job and his replacement, Kevin Harmon, who had been the assistant athletic trainer. It included Mike Grouse and Jay Eddings, longtime amateur scouts who have moved up a notch to pro scouts. It applied for new Triple-A manager Steve Buechele, who had been at Double-A.

In recent years, MLB owners have tried to level the playing field and limit their investment in on field talent by imposing limits on draft bonuses and international signings. Both changes were hindrances to the Rangers, who had become accustomed to paying “over slot,” for more talented players and who were among the most aggressive on the international market.

The rule changes have left the Rangers looking for a weakness in the structure to exploit.

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